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Almost 12 month twins-self weaning?

I have been nursing my almost 12 month old twins most sessions since December (3 months premature July 2010 and pumped while they were in the hospital and while I am working in the morning.) They have slept through the night from 9:30pm to 6am since Feb, but I still get up to pump around 2-3am to keep my supply. Last week it seemed like everything was fine-had an oversupply and still was getting 8oz at the night pumping, but this week it seems like my supply is down to 4-6 ozs. My breast are less full now at the 2-3am session and around 6am too. I pump when they feed from a bottle while at work in the morning, but get about 10-12 sessions with breast and pumping at day. They feed 12 or more on the weekends when I breastfeed all day, but sometimes they only nurse through one letdown now. Are they starting to self wean so my supply is going down? I have not gotten a period yet. They seem to still want to nurse that much, but for not as long. Also they are very interested in self feeding table food so that has increased recently, but I nurse them before and after usually.

Re: Almost 12 month twins-self weaning?

Once babies start eating solid foods, they are on the road to weaning. But that road can be a very long one, with a lot of back and forth- sometimes babies will pick up their nursing again when they hit milestones or are teething or something. This process may take years to complete!

It sounds like you're doing everything right, in terms of how often you're offering the breast and how you're offering before feeding them solids. If you keep on going the way you have been, i think you have many days/weeks/months/years of nursing ahead of you.

Oh- diminished pump output can be due to the increase in solid food consumption and consequent drop in breast milk consumption/production, or it can be due to a decrease in efficiency of your pump- after a year of use, you mmay need to replace some parts or increase your pumping frequency- or it can be due to the impending return of your menstrual cycle.